Burning Cloud
by wolfsrainrules
Summary: Xanxus goes 'fishing' and we all know what the Varia Boss wants he eventually gets. (I have full permission to be playing in Shadowblayze's Burn Me With Fire universe. SHADOW WHAT HAVE YOU DONE)
**I have full permission to be playing in Shadowblayze's Burn Me With Fire universe. Shadow you don't understand what you've done. You released a monster. I can't control my Hibari-Muse. CURSING IS HERE (Xanxus)**

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Skull wasn't stupid.

He knew most people _thought_ that he was, and he certainly didn't help correct the assumptions…but he was _cunning_.

He had been a civilian when he was pulled into the Mafia by Checkerface and while the people around him (the Arcobaleno) remembered this and liked to bring it up they didn't seem to put _two_ and _two_ together to get four when it came to what that meant in regards to Skull.

What this meant was that Skull had survived the darkness of the Mafia after being thrown headfirst into it with nothing but his wits and resolve. He had clawed his way up the ladder to survive. He hadn't already had a foothold in the Mafia when he was made the Arcobaleno Cloud. He'd had to _make_ one, he had to learn as he went.

It had been the biggest damn Trial by Fire of his life.

The others had never stopped to consider that Skull _had not_ been an Active Flame user when he was first approached and dropped into the Mafia. He hadn't know anything, none of the traditions or unwritten rules. His body may have been unknowingly internalizing his Flames for a long while as a Stuntman, but he had never actually _called_ on them until that Trial by Fire where his resolve in the face of overwhelming odds had brought them to the surface.

Skull had accidently offended many people because the Arcobaleno while knowing he was civilian before the Fated Day had all assumed he at least had been briefed on the whole Mafia mess.

He hasn't been.

And by the time he had learned how and why he offended 'so-and-so' as well as managed to fix the problems and he thought to ask the other Arcobaleno they already dismissed him completely, thought him a fool, and beat on him.

Skull refused to give them that sort of information over him. So what if he offended a few people on the way to figuring shit out? He was cunning enough- _desperate_ enough- resolved enough to live and be free to so as he wished that he could and would survive it all.

Starting with the fact that he was an Arcobaleno. Skull was cunning enough to realize the Mafia recognized this to mean 'The Strongest Seven' of the mafia…which gave him leeway. They would see the pacifier that marked him as such and think _**powerful**_ even if he hadn't actually _started out_ that way. Part of being the 'Stuntman' that he was meant Skull could _**act**_ with the best of them. So he walked the walk, talked the talk and pulled the wool over _everyone's_ eyes that he knew exactly what he had gotten into, that he was an Arcobaleno and for all his oddities he was powerful enough to crush anyone that acted against him.

So if the Mafia as a whole had one view of Skull while the Arcobaleno had another…well. He was a _**Cloud**_ for goddess sake. If they had bothered to _look_ and _think_ they would have remembered that Flames were who someone was at their core. A manifestation of their souls, who they were without society's rules binding them, without masks, without lies. The Mafia as a whole _whispered_ of Clouds. Whispered stories of their resolve, of their rage, of their strength. _This_ was who Skull was. So if the Arcobaleno didn't notice the acting and lies surrounding Skull it wasn't _Skull's_ problem if they were being willfully blind.

And then he had met Xanxus when Viper had pulled him in. Viper was one of the few people who had ever put the two-and-two together with Skull to get four. Viper had noticed his skills in deception and his information gathering. He'd helped Skull a couple of times with that information, finding she could respect a man that went out for his own answers and managed to stand tall in the face of everything.

He wasn't sure how getting pulled out of a job gone wrong had changed for him. He hasn't planned to stay so long, but he enjoyed the dynamics of the people of the Varia. They were crazy, he had no doubt, but they were _his_ kind of crazy. The sort of crazy that meant they took the job that no one else could do and they _flourished_ in it. The sort of crazy that meant looking at a stunt that had killed everyone else to try it and think 'I could do that, and then I could do it better.'

Skull could respect that.

And he wasn't blind.

Xanxus was a good Sky. He took care of his own, but he taught them to stand on their own first. He wasn't sure how the world around them was so _blind_ when it came to the Varia. They were _so_ much more than anyone gave them credit for. Not that they weren't the elite assassins who were just this side of _off_ , but they were more than crazy killing machines who would murder their allies.

It took him a while, but watching Xanxus and the Varia with Harry had been the cincher for him. These people were _**loyal**_ in a way Skull hadn't seen before. They were the sort of people that when one of their own was backed into a corner expected that that person could and would get themselves out. They were the sort of people that should something go wrong and one of their own was trapped in a way they couldn't escape the Varia would come in weapons blazing and pull the others out. They were the sort of people that didn't look at _ignorance_ and think _stupidity_ or _weakness_ , but saw it as something to be corrected. They looked at their people and thought of ways to make them better, make them stronger. They were the type that _never_ truly _coddled_ their own, but were willing and able to stand shoulder to shoulder, back to back. The kind of people that when you were pressed to the wall and the world was against you, you could look to your side and _know_ they would be there ready to face the world at your side.

They looked at their people and they taught them to stand strong on their own feet, but always, _always_ offered them a place to come home too, a place to ask and be taught, a place where a Cloud could set roots without being chained or controlled.

It was a hardy realization for Skull, who had always wanted a family that he could be _himself_ with. The realization that he would never have to play the fool with these people, that he could be the cunning, ambitious, silver-tongued civilian that had earned every scrap of his reputation with the mafia through a trial by fire…and they would _teach him_.

He could ask and Xanxus would get ensure he got an answer to whatever it was without any remarks on 'stupidity'.

No, Skull had a distinct memory of Xanxus cursing as he taught Harry one of his 'boss' lessons.

" _Look shitty brat. You're learning the ropes of the fucking Mafia. The people who fucking can and will fucking kill you if you step on the wrong fucking toes before you're too fucking badass for them to look in the damn eye. The only fucking stupid question you can fucking ask while learning this fucking shit is the fucking question you_ don't fucking ask _._ That _is fucking stupidity and will get you fucking dead. What you have is fucking ignorance and that's fucking different. It just means you don't have the damn answer yet. So you have a damn question you damn well_ ask _it because if I find out you didn't shitty brat…"_

Xanxus had trailed off, but the threat (promise) was implied very strongly.

Skull was pretty sure _that_ was the moment he began to hope.

He had noticed Xanxus was 'fishing' for him. He'd have to be stupid and oblivious not too, and Skull hadn't survived this long because he was stupid. He'd seen 'two and two' and found four. The only Element Xanxus didn't have was Cloud and if he looked at the way Xanxus treated him, the little things the Sky did…well it was obvious.

Not that he showed in any way that he'd picked up on it. That would be foolish. He'd rather wait and see how Xanxus reacted to his seeming obliviousness. Wait and see how long the Sky would 'fish' for him. Many Skies had tried and failed to lure in Skull, but most of those that tried weren't strong enough to 'Call' him and the one's that may have had a shot at it all had something stopping Skull from answering their Calls.

Some thought him stupid and weak apart from his Flames. (These Skull didn't think he would have _ever_ Harmonized with.)

Some pitied him and that rankled at his Cloud Instincts.

Some just craved the power he had, and that set off his Instincts as well- he would not be _chained_ for anyone.

Xanxus had been a very, very powerful Sky.

Skull had heard the 'Call' almost as soon as he was in the mansion with the Varia Sky. He'd ignored it, sure that Xanxus wouldn't be interested, and not sure _he_ would be interested in being Xanxus' Cloud.

But…

Well. Time passed and he watched this Sky who Called him interact with his Elements and with the young Sky he had mentored and taken in and Skull began to _hope._

 _This_ was a Sky he could follow. _This_ was a Sky who was powerful in his own right who would not crave the power having the Strongest Cloud would give him, who would not chain him in expectations, who would _teach_ him the traditions and unwritten rules he was unaware of. _This_ was a Sky who was good to his Elements, who taught them to stand on their own.

Skull looked at Xanxus and saw hope for a brighter future where he could be himself.

So he wasn't _quite_ as shocked as he could have been when the day finally comes that he leaps from Harry's shoulder and upon landing on Xanxus' with a bare hand brushing over Xanxus' scalp to stay balanced and something inside _shifts_.

" _Oh."_ Skull's voice is soft and sort of choked for a moment and his hand clenches in the hair he had grabbed upon landing on Xanxus' shoulder as he adjusts to the sudden warmth in the back of his head, the sense of _belonging_ that sweeps over him, the sudden awareness- dimmed though it was since he was sensing them through his connection to Xanxus- of the other members of the Varia.

Xanxus on the other hand has tensed up sharply as he feels the _shift_ happen,

It takes a fraction of a second for him to realize what happened and then he is swamped by a strong surge of possessiveness. He has found them all. He'd finally achieved a full set of Guardians.

 _Skull is one of_ _ **his**_ _now._

The smirk that appears on his face as he hears the whispered 'oh' by his ear is three parts smug possessive predator ( _Got you_ ) and half a part of content Sky ( _complete-whole_ ) half a part daring. (He'd seen the way the Arcobaleno-trash treated the Cloud that was now _his_ and he wouldn't put up with that fucking shit anymore. Won't let _Skull_ put up with it anymore. They would fucking learn. The Arcobaleno and Skull)


End file.
